My yard is my happy place. I have learned a lot by watching my garden grow. A new theme for me this year is to document the change of seasons as they occur in my garden.
Pictured above is an African Daisy I grew in my garden last spring. It was one of the survivors that made it past a late frost. My garden zone is rated between 9b-10a, which means that an occasional winter frost is not unheard of. When I first moved into my house 12 years ago, my plants seemed to know that and diligently remained dormant throughout the entire winter. The last two winters, I noticed that something had changed. My plants don’t seem to know when to rest anymore.
Okay, I admit that it’s hard to tell what’s happening in the photo above, but this image documents how confused my African Daisies are. In short, they shouldn’t even be growing, but here they are in all their green glory. I forgot to pay attention to the overnight lows and failed to cover these sensitive plants. Normally, I wouldn’t even think about these plants in the middle of December because they wouldn’t be growing, but the New Normal means that I have to pay closer attention to what’s happening in my garden. A row of freeze-burned plants alerted me to the situation, so I quickly threw a blanket over the rest to see what could be saved.
The sizes of the plants pictured vaguely documents the variety of growth stages occurring. New growth is tucked in with very tall plants when, in reality, the only size that should be there is the tiniest beginnings of plants. My entire front yard looks like this, and it’s concerning.
None of this green should be there.
Welcome to 2023.
Krista Marson 